1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a power management integrated circuit (IC), and more particularly to an IC with multi-functional parameter setting and a multi-functional parameter setting method of the IC.
2. Description of Related Art
In a typical computer system, a voltage identification definition (VID) provided by a central processing unit (CPU) varies according to its work mode so as to dynamically adjust its operational voltage (or core voltage) to save power consumption. When the computer system does not require significant power consumption on the considerable amount of computation, the CPU generates the VID according to its work mode and transmits the VID to a voltage regulator. The voltage regulator then reduces the operational voltage of the CPU according to the VID.
A conventional integrated circuit (IC) utilized for regulating a voltage may have additional functions. For instance, the conventional IC may perform a droop function to sense whether a droop current exists. If the IC capable of performing other functions regulates the voltage, other pins and a number of additional setting components are required by the IC to regulate the operational voltage of the CPU. This may lead to an overall increase in the area occupied by the IC and may raise the manufacturing costs of the IC.
With the progress of electronic technologies, the IC is able to perform a variety of functions. Nonetheless, the limited number of the pins in the IC may restrain the IC from executing the additional function settings.